Share this with

Leonard Cohen penned a heartfelt final letter to his lover and muse after he was told that she was dying.

Marianna Ihlen, who was the inspiration behind the songs So Long, Marianne and Bird On A Wire, died in Norway on 29 July aged 81.

But after close friend Jan Christian Mollestad contacted the dour Canadian songsmith, he penned an emotional farewell to his lover – who he met on the Greek island Hydra in the 1960’s.

Mollestad said: ‘It took only two hours and in came this beautiful letter from Leonard to Marianne. We brought it to her the next day and she was finally conscious and she was so happy that he had already written something for her.’

Describing the letter, he recalled how Cohen had poignantly touched on veering ever closer to mortality.

Leonard Cohen with Marianne on a trek in Greece in the 1960s (Picture: Getty)

‘It said well Marianne it’s come to this time when we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine.

Advertisement

Advertisement

‘And you know that I’ve always loved you for your beauty and your wisdom, but I don’t need to say anything more about that because you know all about that.

‘But now, I just want to wish you a very good journey. Goodbye old friend. Endless love, see you down the road.’

Mollestad also said that Ihlen stretched out her hand when the letter instructed to, and added that he had hummed Bird on a Wire in her final moments.

Before leaving the hospital room, he also says that he kissed her on the head and said: ‘So long, Marianne.’

The death last week of Marianne Ihlen, the woman immortalized in “So Long, Marianne,” has evoked an overwhelming…